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Published: June 14, 2012 00:00 IST |
Updated: June 14, 2012 08:39 IST

Strings attached

ANJANA RAJAN

Alif LailaPHOTO: A.M.Faruqui

MUSIC ANJANA RAJAN tracks down some women sitar exponents to find why they are a rare breed

Think of India's best known sitar players and two great
names are likely to be uppermost in the average listener's mind - Pandit
Ravi Shankar, who at 90-plus is still a huge draw for audiences across
the world, and the late Ustad Vilayat Khan, whose death in 2004 left a
void in the music field. There are others, like Pandit Parikh and
Vilayat Khan's son Shujaat Hussain Khan, besides the supremely gifted
Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, whose death at 54 cut short a brilliant career.
But in this list of luminaries it would be hard to find names of women
sitarists, though women vocalists abound. Veteran vocalist Madhup Mudgal
points out, "Annapurna Devi (surbahar, also known as bass sitar) is way
ahead of all others. And there was Sarvajeet Kaur but she died a few
years ago." Pandit Tejpal Singh, among the seniormost and thinking
musicians residing in the Capital, says the matter is certainly "worth
thinking about". He says, "I keep hearing various musicians, but what is
the reason we don't see many women sitarists, although there are a
great many wonderful women vocalists, I don't know. The sitar is a very
graceful instrument for women; suits them. Saraswati (Goddess of music)
is shown holding a stringed instrument. Annapurna Devi plays the
surbahar but she did not play much publicly." He notes, "Jaya Biswas has
made the rank. Then I remember Kalyani Roy was really good." Noted
sitar exponent Jagdeep Singh Bedi who teaches at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya
feels an instrument compounds the problems a woman vocalist might face
in trying to maintain a career. "Some become lecturers in universities.
But a job sort of dulls your enthusiasm (to perform)," he muses. Here
some women sitarists discuss their careers and why they are rarities in
the field:

Jaya Biswas

Among
the leading disciples of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Vidushi Jaya Biswas is
outspoken to a fault. One wonders if this trait has played its part in
keeping the national awards away from the Kolkata-based sitarist, in a
world where diplomacy and image are all-important. "Instrument playing
is a very difficult thing," she says. "A singer has many more
opportunities. You can (for example) do playback singing. When parents
find a girl has talent and want to train her, everyone opts for vocal."
The instrument is costly too, she notes.

Enumerating
difficulties like right and left hand coordination and painful fingers
caused by executing meend (gliding notes), the veteran then comes to the
crux of her argument: While the female voice is always a "rage", and
good women singers needn't struggle for a market, the gender of the
player makes no difference to the sound of the sitar. A woman sitarist,
otherwise on equal footing with her male counterparts, "finds it very
difficult to get ahead in a male dominated world," with the majority of
organisers and percussion accompanists being men. "Male sitarists can
lobby for programmes without losing anything. A female musician can
approach an organiser once or twice," she feels, because she runs the
risk of "being taken advantage of". While others in the classical music
world rarely go on record with complaints of this nature, she states
categorically, "Nowadays the music world has become as dirty as the film
world." She relates, "During the 1960s and up to the '70s I used to get
letters directly from all organisers (of major music festivals across
the country). Then the trend changed. The male musicians would throw
themselves at the feet of the organisers." With pliant artistes willing
to negotiate rates, "it suited their (organisers') budget." Saying she
began to get less invitations to perform from the 1980s, the veteran
insists Kolkata's music scene, including its major institutions and
festivals, is in the hands of just a few.

(PHOTO Courtesy Sangeet Natak Akademi)

Alif Laila

Alif
Laila, trained in Dhaka under the late Ustad Mir Qasem Khan, nephew of
the legendary Ustad Allauddin Khan, combines her love for the sitar with
a passion for painting. Based in the U.S. since 1988, she has also
trained under the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and is currently under the
guidance of Kushal Das. To Alif the gender imbalance is due mainly "to
South Asian cultural and social setbacks where it was considered
inappropriate for a woman from a respectable background to perform in
public. The young female was trained in singing and dancing only to be
able to do so until her marriage." She feels, "classical instruments
were considered 'only for men'."

She points out that
the much older veena, from South India, has far more female
practitioners whereas "the sitar is one of the most recent of the
classical instruments." Also, says Alif, "The time, energy and
commitment needed to be a sitar artiste is a major clash with the family
responsibilities that a woman faces in a conventional marriage."

Though
encouraged by her family, Alif recalls, "Just when Ustadji (Mir Qasem
Khan) began to prepare me for public performances, I got married and had
to join my husband in Kuwait, which was right after I graduated from
the College of Fine Arts in 1981." More challenges came with two
children and no household help. "The craving for more musical guidance
and growth was a constant desire within." Moving to the U.S., she had to
work full-time, but took "every opportunity available to learn from
many visiting performing maestros." Alif admits, "My commitment to my
family and the sitar were often in conflict."

Additionally,
she had to be accompanied by a trusted companion when going to her own
or others' concerts, rehearsals after dark, etc. "All these factors
definitely slowed down the pace of my musical career but fortunately did
not affect my creative aspirations." With her children grown, Alif
"decided to break the conventional notions of a female touring
performer," though she faced criticism.

Teaching on a
one-to-one basis, she remarks, "In general there are younger male
students who continue with performing aspirations. On the other hand,
there are more married women, who had long periods of gap due to family
and career that embrace the sitar back into their lives."

Kalyani Roy

Kalyani
Roy, well known sitar exponent and painter, exudes bonhomie over the
phone from her Kolkata residence. "When I was just eight years old I
started learning the sitar and my first guru was N.C. Ganguly. Next I
was under P. Sen Gupta. He was a great artiste," she recounts. "Then I
went to
pujaniya
Khan Saheb, when I was sweet 16 or 17. From then till his death I got all
taleem
and love from him. I respect my guru very much." Known as the only
performing woman sitar disciple of Vilayat Khan, she is proud of having
remained with the gharana of Inayat Khan.

Saying that
she never faced difficulty being a woman and was supported in her
endeavour by her family, she says, "I have gone around the world and
India and you will be glad to know that I still perform. My career came
about on its own. No one guided me."

With several LPs
to her credit, the veteran, who gave her first public concert in 1945,
feels it is not just women but that the trend of sitar itself is less
compared to other popular instruments like the electronic synthesizer.
"The sadhana and depth and love required by the sitar and sarod.we put
our whole life into the sitar. So we don't find such dedication today."

Still
performing on radio and television, she was honoured by Kolkata's
Sangeet Ashram in February this year, while in March, she was awarded
the Manik Pal Memorial award by the organisation Dhwani.

Manju Mehta

Ahmedabad-based
Manju Nandan Mehta, a disciple of her elder brother Pandit Shashimohan
Bhatt as well as Pandit Damodarlal Kabra and Pandit Ravi Shankar, is a
world-travelled musician (though in comparison to her younger brother,
Mohan veena maestro Vishwamohan Bhatt, she does need a little more
introduction). Taking an upbeat view, she says, "In the other
instruments - violin, sarangi, sarod, etc. - there are few women
musicians. As for the sitar, still, compared to these, there are more
women in the field. Things change over time. These days, people give
more importance to vocal music. Learning to handle an instrument takes
about 12 years. It takes two-three years just to learn to handle the
strings. I have about 50 girls learning under me. In fact I also
presented about 25 girl students before Pandit Ravi Shankar."

She
adds, "There are few good gurus today. When people see an inspiring
figure like my guru Pandit Ravi Shankar they come to learn. And he is
not much seen nowadays (in India). Take (a performer like) Zakir
Hussain. Even those who don't know about the tabla will go to learn it.
The government should look into this. I have started a course at Gujarat
University."

Sections

Biography

Hello and welcome!

I was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. My connection with the arts was very deep since childhood. After my initial training in vocal music, I was inspired to learn the sitar by my mother, Shehida, who opened the doors and guided me into the spiritual depth of the intricacies of all forms of arts in life.

My first guru was Ustad Mir Qasem Khan, nephew of the legendary Ustad Allauddin Khan. Later in life I learned from Partha Chatterjee and Krishna Bhatt. At present I am taking guidance from Kushal Das. I graduated from the College of Fine Art in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and received several awards for my paintings. The world of rhythm and tone in drawing and painting gradually merged with my music and my love story with the arts began.

I have performed extensively in Bangladesh, India, and the USA. I have released six CDs and two DVDs. 'Sangam', one of my CDs, was recorded in a unique analogue system of sound engineering by Mapleshade Records. My DVD ‘Hrydayaragam’ was recorded in Kerala, India and was presented as part of the Women’s History Month at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Another DVD, ‘The Strings Of Resonance’ connects the Indian Classical music to the heritage of the land. I am happy to present my latest work,'The Romance Of Raags And Songs In Bengal’ as a tribute to Bengali songs by two great poet/composers of Bengal, Tagore and Nazrul.

I am always sincerely trying to express and present my music as the complete ‘art’ of my life.

With devotion and dedication I embrace the sitar as the instrument of my soul.